Description: Small (7-9.5mm) dark ground beetle with bright blue metallic reflections, living under stones and in tussocks at high altitudes on mountains. Very rare in Ireland generally.

NI account: Rare in Ireland, and mainly recorded in the west and south-west. A single dark green specimen was taken by Nevin Foster in 1902 (Johnson & Halbert, 1912) on Slieve-na-Glogh, Mourne Mountains, Down, but the species usually has a steel-blue reflection. Other sites are: Slieve Glah, Cavan; Slievemore, Achill and Croagh Patrick, West Mayo; Ben Lettery, West Galway; Mangerton, Carrantuohill and Caher, Kerry. Two modern records by Stephen McCormack: Glencloghan Valley, Twelve Bens, West Galway; Caher Mountain, Magillycuddy's Reeks, North Kerry, in 2003/4.

Ecology: Reported mainly from scree or breccia at high altitude in Europe; according to Marggi (1992), under stones in dry places within the alpine zone.

Distribution: Within Preston & Hill's floristic elements this species would be categorised as European Boreal-montane (43), but with a restriction for montane habitats rather than Boreal in the geographic sense. Found in mountains of the temperate zone of southern and central Europe from north Spain and the Pyrenees to the Swiss Alps and the Carpathians. There are two named forms of which subsp. rhaeticus Heer occurs in the British Isles. British localities in north Wales, northern England and Scotland are at the extreme northern end of its range.

Similar Species: Leistus fulvibarbis: metallic colouration faint; head wrinkled, not punctate laterally.

Key Identification Features:

• Dilated, very flat mandibles (Fig. 1)
• Neck constricted with a lace (Fig. 1)
• Pronotum cordate
• Metallic blue or green colouration
• Head strongly punctate laterally

Distribution Map from NBN: Leistus montanus at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Leistus montanus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Leistus montanus | Classification: Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Leistus

Thumbnails for genus Leistus